OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is bringing in far more revenue than the widely cited $13 billion annual estimate. The executive of the artificial intelligence startup also defended its $1.4 trillion investment in infrastructure.
In a Friday episode of the Bg2 Pod, host Brad Gerstner, founder of Altimeter Capital, pressed Altman on how OpenAI could justify such a massive infrastructure commitment given its current scale of revenue.
“We’re doing well more revenue than that,” Altman replied.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella also appeared on the podcast.
OpenAI Announces Major Infrastructure Deals
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO), and Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) have all announced AI infrastructure agreements with OpenAI in recent weeks.
Other AI giants, including Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and leading OpenAI investor Microsoft, also spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on capital projects.
Losses Persist Despite Revenue Growth
While OpenAI continues to raise tens of billions of dollars from investors and generate billions more in revenue, Altman has warned losses will persist.
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According to The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft’s latest quarterly results included a $4 billion charge that implies OpenAI lost $12 billion last quarter.
Altman Pushes Back Against Doubters
On the podcast, Altman slammed skeptics who questioned OpenAI's growth prospects.
“We do plan for revenue to grow steeply. Revenue is growing steeply,” he said.
According to Altman, the business is placing a long-term wager on sustained expansion, anticipating that ChatGPT will not only grow but also emerge as a significant force in the AI cloud services market.
He went on to say that AI capable of automating scientific work has the potential to generate enormous value, and that OpenAI’s consumer device business could play a significant role in its operations.
One of the few times, according to Altman, when having a publicly traded company would be desirable is when there is a chance for short sellers to lose.
Altman previously said that OpenAI will likely go public someday, though he said he is not “well-suited” to be a public company CEO.
“I would love to tell them they could just short the stock, and I would love to see them get burned on that,” he said.
Revenue Could Hit $100 Billion In 2027
While discussing the possibility of OpenAI going public in the coming years, Gerstner suggested the company could reach annual revenues exceeding $100 billion by 2028 or 2029, to which Altman quickly responded that the milestone could come even sooner: "How about '27?"
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
